"Hollywood Blockbusters": Summaries and Links

Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies, David Sutton and Peter Wogan (London: Berg Press, 2009). HB REVIEWER COMMENTS:"It certainly added enormously to my understanding of this film [Field of Dreams], which I thought I had
understood well. This is indeed the great strength of Hollywood Blockbusters: the
perspectives here are unique and most film scholars will find their approach
stimulating, useful and valuable." --Don
Perlgut, Media International Australia, 2011.

"[T]hey
manage to provide in-depth and interesting analyses of hugely popular films
which have already been covered from many different aspects and yet come up
with something new and fresh." --Steen Christiansen, Scope: An Online Journal of Film and TV Studies, 2011."Hollywood Blockbusters is
anthropological theorizing at its filmic best. Sutton and Wogan have
translated complex anthropological concepts and debates into a rich
analysis of popular motion pictures, giving us both a window into the
value of anthropological sensibilities and a new interpretation of
well-known Hollywood offerings." --John Jackson, Professor of Anthropology,
University of Pennsylvania (Book jacket). TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: The Godfather (Analysis of writing and food symbolism in the movie, such as the bandleader's written contract with Johnny Fontane, Clemenza's cannoli and the gun)Chapter 3: Field of Dreams (How baseball foul lines reveal American views of social authority)Chapter 4: The Big Lebowski (Bowling, Gender, Temporality, and Other “What Have You’s”)Chapter 5: The Village (This was not ablockbuster, due to its non-conformity with stereotypes of small, egalitarian communities)Chapter 6: Jaws (Analysis of the shark as a foreign culture, Hooper as an anthropologist)Chapter 7: Conclusion (Suggestions on how to investigate film theories with specific audiences)

(At Amazon.com, you can search the full book and read sample pages.) AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH CO-AUTHOR DAVID SUTTONIn this 18-minute audio interview, I ask Sutton the following questions:

In The Big Lebowski, which character do you think you're most like?Would you eat shark? What's a shark-like mystery for anthropologists today?Why did you dress like Don Corleone for Halloween last year?